An Israeli airstrike on Nasser Hospital in Gaza on Wednesday night killed six people and injured 27 others, according to UN News, the United Nations’ news service. The strike also caused extensive damage.

The strike hit the hospital’s surgical department. The World Health Organization (WHO) said the dead included a medical worker, patients and people who were accompanying them. The UN report did not include a response from Israel and did not say why the hospital was struck.

Ramiz Alakbarov, the UN Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process ad interim, said Thursday that he was deeply alarmed by the attack. He said the continued violence and recent rise in military operations deepen human suffering in Gaza and “jeopardize the increasingly fragile ceasefire.”

Alakbarov said international humanitarian law requires all parties to protect medical staff and facilities. Hospitals must not be targeted or used for military purposes, he said. He repeated his call for rapid, safe and unimpeded humanitarian access.

WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Gaza’s health facilities are lifelines for its people and should never be militarized or attacked. According to the UN report, WHO has documented more than 1,000 assaults on health care in the Strip since October 2023. Tedros said health needs there remain immense as winter arrives.

A separate strike on Thursday hit the area near UN facilities in Deir al-Balah, where UN staff are sheltering. The UN said all staff were accounted for.

The strike came as families deal with the effects of heavy storms that hit Gaza last weekend. The storms caused widespread flooding and a deadly sand dune collapse. Reports indicate a nine-month-old baby died of the cold after days of heavy rain and flooding.

The UN aid coordination office, known as OCHA, estimates that 65% of Gaza’s population, about 1.4 million people, live in tents or makeshift shelters. As of Wednesday, humanitarian partners had given tents, tarpaulins, blankets and other supplies to about 1,800 families. That is roughly a third of some 5,200 families whose immediate needs had been assessed.

The partners also pumped out standing water, dug drainage channels and cleaned affected areas. The UN said the rainy season has only begun and is expected to last several months.

According to the UN, families are exposed to standing water contaminated with sewage, and available pumps, sandbags and other equipment fall short of needs. It said essential laboratory supplies and medical equipment continue to be denied entry. That hampers the detection of disease outbreaks, a risk that grows significantly in winter.

Separately, a group of 53 countries and organizations called the Gaza Call to Action urged Israel’s incoming government on Thursday to let aid into Gaza at scale. Sarah MacIntosh, the UK ambassador, spoke outside the Security Council in New York on the group’s behalf. She said the full aid flows promised under the peace plan endorsed by resolution 2803 had “not yet been realised.”